Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief

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The challengeDue to the extreme growth of fixedcontent, compliance, and archivedata, storage requirements are quicklyevolving beyond traditional backup andrecovery requirements. The situationrequires better methods to deploy andmanage tiered storage solutions. Anintegrated virtual tape library optimizesthe integration of disk array technologyas a front-end to tape drives and auto-mated tape libraries. The typical virtualtape library is a disk array that emulatesmultiple virtual tape drives and librariesbut doesn’t serve as the integration pointwith physical tape resources.

The Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape LibraryPlus 2.0 (VTL Plus) is available in a rangeof capacity and performance levels todeliver the benefits of virtualization.Until now, however, the methods forduplicating data from the VTL Plus diskcache to physical tape were restricted totape caching and Symantec’s Veritas

NetBackup vaulting. Each of these meth-ods provide both benefits and drawbacks.

The benefits are the capability tomigrate or copy data to physical tape.

The drawbacks are in the transparencyand multiple points of managementassociated with tape caching and theperformance degradation that can occurin the two-step process of data migrationthrough vaulting.

Now the VTL Plus 2.0 offers the NetworkData Management Protocol (NDMP) 4.0feature. When the feature is enabled, itbecomes the best practice method fordata movement between tiers of storageduplication. The initial performance ofNDMP duplications is similar to tapecaching performance. However, whendata restoration is required for a copy onphysical tape, the backup application canrestore directly from physical tape. Thismethod eliminates the impact to restoreperformance associated with tape cachewhen reclaiming data to the VTL Plus.

This easy-to-implement-and-managesolution, in which NetBackup™ provides asingle point of management, delivers the

benefits of tape caching and vaulting andeliminates the drawbacks. At the sametime, it requires no changes to existingprocesses, reduces management timeand costs, and improves the ROI ofexisting tape solutions.

Highlights

• Capture the benefits oftape caching and NetBackupvaulting by enabling SunStorageTek VTL Plus NDMP

• Simplify data managementthrough a single point of control

• Simplify disaster recovery byperforming full restores directlyfrom physical tape

• Manage data lifecycles efficientlythrough assigning specificretention policy for each copy

• Improve ROI on existing tapeinvestments by gaining higherutilization of physical tape drivesand tape cartridges and loweringmanagement and energy costs dueto lower hardware requirements

• Integrate Sun StorageTekAutomated Cartridge SystemLibrary Software (ACSLS Manager)software to centralize tape librarymanagement to further lower costof storage

Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0with NDMP 4.0 Feature andVeritas NetBackup™ 6.5Optimize tiered storage with a single pointof management

The Sun VTL Plus 2.0 with NDMP 4.0 feature enables single-pointmanagement for data movement to effectively perform data protection,lifecycle management, and disaster recovery—with no change toexisting processes and improved ROI of existing tape solutions.

Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief

Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief

2Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0with NDMP 4.0 Feature and Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5

Features and benefits of NDMP 4.0The VTL Plus with NDMP 4.0 simplifiesdata movement, lifecycle management,and disaster recovery. NetBackup canmanage the physical devices attached tothe VTL Plus and perform any operation asif the device is directly attached to amedia server. Multiple copies of data canbe easily maintained, and the VTL Plusdisk cache is better utilized.

The top benefits of using the Sun VTL withNDMP 4.0 include the following:

• NetBackup acts as a single point ofmanagement and keeps a record of allcopies in the catalog

• Data is moved by the VTL Plus, whichoffloads tasks from the NetBackupmedia server workload

• Data migration can be from virtual tophysical, physical to virtual, andphysical to physical

• Physical tape is utilized more efficiently,exposing opportunities for technologyrefresh and consolidation

• Data lifecycles (physical and virtual) aremanaged by NetBackup

• Disaster recovery process is streamlinedthrough enabling full restoration fromphysical tape

• Integration with Sun StorageTek ACSLSManager software enables centralizedmanagement of tape libraries

Catalog coherency and physicalmedia migrationAn administrator uses the NetBackupAdministration Console to control allcopies of a backup. After the data is onvirtual tape, the NetBackup server sends arequest to the VTL Plus to duplicate avirtual volume to a physical volume.Data doesn’t have to travel back to theNetBackup media server before it iscopied to physical tape because the VTLPlus moves the data, alleviating thepotential need for additional hardwarethat may result from using NetBackupvaulting.

Since the VTL Plus migrates data from onephysical tape format to another, there islittle to no impact to the backup windowduring a migration or upgrade. WithNetBackup managing the physical devicesattached to the VTL Plus, all operationsthat require reads and writes duringduplication occur off the NetBackupmedia server.

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Benefits Drawbacks

Tape

caching

VTL moves the data;NetBackup mediaservers are free torun normaloperations.

• NetBackup catalog not updated with number and loca-tion of virtual or physical copies made by the VTL Plus.

• Under utilization of physical tapes due to difficultymatching the size of virtual tape cartridges to physicaltapes due to use of compression.

NetBackup

vaulting

Vaulting servermanages duplicationof virtual tapes;catalog is keptcurrent.

• Inefficient use of CPU and network resources because thevaulting server is the data mover.

• Additional hardware may be required.• The two-step process (retrieve and write) results inperformance impact.

Tape caching and vaultingA review of the benefits and drawbacks of tape caching and NetBackup vaulting providesa context for VTL Plus 2.0 with the NDMP 4.0 feature.

Sun VTL as Data Mover

Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0with NDMP 4.0 Feature and Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5

The physical tape environmentThe NDMP 4.0 feature also saves timerelated to managing the physical tapeenvironment. For example, the adminis-trator can use the policy-based tapestacking capability to migrate virtualtape data volumes of one tape drive typesuch as LTO 1 to another tape drive type.NetBackup duplicates the backup imagesregardless of the written-to original tapeformat. Essentially any tape format(virtual or physical) can be duplicated toany other format (virtual or physical).

In addition, NDMP makes the upgrade ofnewer physical tape technology easierbecause it’s a back-end process. Physicaltapes can be migrated into the VTL Plus,and then the data can be reclaimed to anew physical drive type such as LTO 4.The VTL Plus can also act as a duplicationengine to create copies from one physicaltape to another physical tape. Since theVTL Plus moves the data, it reduces theload placed on the NetBackup server.Since NetBackup sees and controls thetape resources—virtual and physical—it is aware of all copies.

Lifecycle managementData lifecycle management is efficient andeasy to administer with VTL Plus and theNDMP feature because each individualduplicate can be given its own specificretention period by NetBackup. For exam-ple, a backup written to virtual tape canbe retained for four weeks and a physicalduplicate can be retained for 10 years.After a virtual tape has been expired, itcan be used immediately for anotherbackup, reusing the disk cache. If tapecapacity on demand is enabled on the VTLPlus, the disk cache can be reclaimedthrough the NetBackup AdministrationConsole.

Disaster recoveryIn the event the VTL Plus is unavailable toperform a restore operation and physicaltape is available, NetBackup can be con-figured to restore directly from physicaltape to expedite disaster recovery. Thistype of restore is accomplished by zoninga physical drive directly to a media server.As a best practice, performing full restorefrom physical tape tends to deliver betterperformance compared to a disk-basedappliance. This is because the aggregatebandwidth of dedicated tape drives deliv-ers concurrent retrieval off of tape sets.In comparison, internal path contentionwithin the appliance, coupled with datalocation, can impede optimal perform-ance during a full restore.

Centralized, multi-platform librarymanagement with ACSLS ManagersoftwareSun StorageTek ACSLS Manager softwareintegrates with the VTL Plus 2.0 to enablecentralized management of tapelibraries. In heterogeneous environments,disparate libraries can be collapsed to onecentralized library or string of librariesaccessed from a single point of control.ACSLS Manager software supports populartape management systems and mostStorageTek libraries, and it interoperateswith major operating systems andHierarchical Storage Management (HSM)applications. The use of ACSLS Managersoftware simplifies administration ofmedia movement and thereby helps toincrease media and tape drive utilization.

Veritas NetBackup 6.5—next-generationdata protectionHardware-agnostic, scalable NetBackup6.5 provides a unified data protectionsolution with centralized and real-timemanagement of disk- and tape-basedstorage. NetBackup supports all majoroperating platforms and enables onlineand granular recovery of databases andapplications.

Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief

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Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0with NDMP 4.0 Feature and Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5

Optimization of tiered storage andexisting tape investmentsSun StorageTek Virtual Tape Library Plus2.0 systems with NDMP 4.0, together withVeritas NetBackup 6.5, optimize thedeployment of tiered storage applications.NDMP, the integration point, enablesNetBackup to be the single point ofmanagement and the VTL Plus to be thedata mover. The net effect is that thesystem administrator can more effectivelymanage the complete lifecycle of virtualand physical tape copies.

In addition, the integrated VTL Plus solu-tion can improve the ROI of traditionaltape investments by improving tape driveand library reliability, efficiency, and I/Operformance because many requests aresent to the disk buffer, and by loweringmanagement and energy costs due tolower hardware requirements.

Engage the storage expertsSun service professionals can help youaddress storage challenges by deliveringservices and solutions that optimize andmanage storage performance over the lifeof your data. Our implementation servicesaddress utilization, availability, capabilityplanning, and management efficiency,helping you quickly realize the benefitsfrom your investment.

With Sun Professional Services, ourstorage industry veterans can pinpointways to better allocate and consolidatedata across a tiered storage architecture,which is a critical component of effectivevirtualization.

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